Your government is closed — except for Obamacare: Opinion

The fine irony of Government Shutdown 2013 is that it comes the same day as the Affordable Health Care Act insurance exchanges open.

So you can’t visit a national park today or call the IRS for an update on your audit, but you can sign up for Obamacare — even though stopping Obamacare is the whole point of House Republicans’ letting the government shut down.

Yes, the federal government is closed, except for “essential services” — and Obamacare.

A lesser irony is that the last time Congress shut down the federal government, under Newt Gingrich’s House speakership during the Clinton administration, it wound up costing taxpayers an extra $1.5 billion in 1996 dollars. Expect to pay a higher tab this time around — all part of the conservative Republicans’ efforts to make government smaller.